The enigmatic R’n’B crooner from Toronto, known for lush grooves and x-rated desires, tones down the profanity somewhat on his second album Beauty Behind the Madness and the result is a pop chart stampede. This week, he takes the No. 1 and 2 positions, with the catchy, Michael Jackson-esque disco party Can’t Feel My Face dethroning his own track The Hills (which had spent five weeks at the top spot). Earlier this summer, Earned It, the theme song for Fifty Shades of Grey, peaked at No. 3. Collaborators on the album include Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey, Kanye West and Max Martin (Taylor Swift) — an impressive posse, considering just five years ago Abel Tesfaye was still folding shirts at American Apparal.

Dec. 2, 7:30 p.m. | Rogers Arena

Tickets: $39.50-$199.50, livenation.com

An Evening with John Irving

The author of bestsellers including The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules, has just published his 14th novel. Avenue of Mysteries weaves together two storylines into an inventive epic that stretches from Iowa to Mexico to The Philippines. Themes and preoccupations will be familiar to Irving admirers: sex and sexuality, clairvoyance and faith. The American-born, Toronto-based writer, 73, says returning to these issues isn’t a matter of choice. “They’re more in the nature of obsessions, which are things that choose you. You don’t choose them. You don’t get to choose what wakes you up at four in the morning.”

Dec. 1 | Vancouver Playhouse

Tickets: $26.75/$28.75, writersfest.bc.ca

Bright Nights in Stanley Park

All aboard the festive Bright Nights train, which chugs through a forest aglow with 3 million lights, around a lake, through tunnels, and past a giant gingerbread house and other holiday displays. Santa is usually on hand in his living room, a live musical performance adds holiday cheer, and free popcorn, roasted chestnuts and hot chocolate are offered. A Vancouver tradition for 18 years, the nightly ride often sells out; avoid disappointment by purchasing advance tickets online.

Nov. 26-Jan. 2 | Stanley Park Miniature Railway

Tickets: $6-$11, vancouver.ca

The Peak of Christmas

Every year, a fleet of elves builds a subdivision of the North Pole on Grouse Mountain, where visitors can visit real reindeer, go ice skating, take a sleigh ride through the forest, and listen to carollers. If your timing is right, you can have breakfast with Santa — or you can always visit the big guy at his workshop (avoid the lineup by booking a time slot upon arrival on the mountaintop). And remember, when it’s damp in the city it’s a winter wonderland 1,000 metres above it. New this year: The Sliding Zone and the Light Walk, a series of light installations, including a glowing tunnel, around Blue Grouse Lake.

Even unadorned, the Capilano Suspension Bridge, one of the highest in the world, is an awesome sight. Turn on thousands of Christmas lights, and it’s over the top. Lights also sparkle in the surrounding park, Cliffwalk, what is said to be the world’s tallest living Christmas tree (47 metres), and for the first time, the cliff face and the river bank below. With a scavenger hunt, cookie decorating and singalong carols. Returning this year: Free shuttle from Canada Place.

Tickets; $12-$37.95 (includes unlimited access for the year for B.C. residents), capbridge.com

Tales of a Charlie Brown Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas, created in 1965, continues to be a TV classic, while the soundtrack has become one of the bestselling jazz albums of all time. Most of the show’s creative team are gone, including Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, and Vince Guaraldi, the man who wrote the music. But Jerry Granelli, who was Guaraldi’s drummer at time, now lives in Halifax. He has always played music (with Sly Stone, Bill Evans, Bill Frisell among others), but avoided the Charlie Brown repertoire — until just a couple of years ago, when he decided the show’s beautiful message should be heard again. Coastal Sound Children’s Choir joins his trio in a recreation of the timeless holiday music.

Nov. 29. 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. | Vogue Theatre

Tickets: $16-$42, voguetheatre.com

European Union Film Festival

Each EU country chooses a film that best represents it, and the result is a state-of-the-Union celebration of diversity and accomplishment in filmmaking. Among the 28 entries is the second-most expensive Dutch film ever made, Admiral, a historical epic set in the mid-17th century; Love Building, a Romanian lo-fi comedy about 14 couples at relationship camp; another comedy, How Saul and Paul Robbed Them All, a Lithuanian box-office hit about two yokels’ attempt to rob a wedding train, and from Cyprus, Committed, an unconventional romance. Pictured is a still from The Admiral, the Netherland's second most expensive film ever.

The Weeknd.

Photograph by: REX Shutterstock, Photograph: REX Shutterstock

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